Mr Thomas Ebong, the Permanent Secretary, Cross River Ministry of Information and Orientation, has urged its management staff members to be creative to enhance efficient service delivery.
Addressing an enlarged management meeting of the ministry, including Heads of Departments and Agencies under the ministry, in Calabar on Wednesday, Ebong said they should do this in spite of glaring challenges.
The Permanent Secretary said that all hands must be on deck to salvage the civil service ethics that were gradually being eroded.
He stressed the need for civil servants, particularly Information officers, to brace up to the current challenges of the service.
He disclosed that the State Government had begun remedial renovation works on government buildings looted and destroyed by the hijacked EndSARS protesters as well as the destruction caused by the windstorm of March 2021.
“This is with the view to making the work environment very conducive for civil and public servants,’’ he said.
He told them that as Information officers they had critical roles to play in publicising government’s policies and programmes which was the core mandate of the ministry.
In his contribution, Mr John Ushie of Government Printing Unit, said the hijacked EndSARS protest had since October 2020 rendered unit without an office.
He added that the entire workforce needed conducive work environment to effectively deliver their mandate.
Mr Mike Nyajor, Director of Public Relations, said the meeting was timely and more of a wake-up call to re-engineer the workers’’ psyche while efforts would be made to resuscitate all the schedules of the Ministry.
The State Director of Information, Mrs Paulyn Eba, expressed the need for the engagement of more Information officers by government, noting that the existing number could not cover the current number of MDAs in the state.
It would be recalled that the State Governor had in May removed the Commissioner for Information, Mr Asu Okang, leaving the Permanent Secretary to oversee the ministry. (NAN)
